This is a Saturday that the Kvapils will soon not forget.
Earlier in the afternoon, two-time CARS Tour champion Carson Kvapil captured his first victory in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. However, his dad Travis wasn’t able to attend in person because he had crew chief duties for the JR Motorsports No. 88 Late Model Stock piloted by brother Caden.
By the end of the night, Caden had met the moment and won the prestigious Hampton Heat 200 at Langley Speedway as well. What a banner day for the 2003 NASCAR Truck Series champion and his boys this turned out to be.
“Yeah, this is really cool,” Travis said after the race. “Quite the swing of emotions today. I mean, earlier I was in tears with Carson because there’s just so much weight on his shoulders and you’re expected to win at that level and he finally got it done and that’s a big step for him. Hopefully that leads into a championship run.
“It’s an hour after their race, and I’m still catching myself reading texts that would choke me up, because it’s just amazing. But I need to switch into Late Model race mode, setting air pressures and thinking about what we did here last year.
“Like I said for Carson, I’m proud of Caden for the race he drove too.”
Independently of what his brother accomplished earlier in the day, winning one of the Virginia Triple Crowns was a big deal for Caden.
“This win is awesome,” said the current CARS Tour championship leader. “The Hampton Heat is a hard race to win. It’s one of the hardest Late Model Stock races to win in my opinion, and to do it on my first try says a lot about my dad and everyone at JR Motorsports that gave me a car where I could get out front and set my own pace and drive away with it.
“So, it’s a really cool night for both me and Carson. I feel like going into this race, I had a little pressure on me to run well and hopefully get the win and we were able to do that so just an awesome night overall.”
The Kvapils arguably didn’t have the best car overall on Saturday but stuck around through some adversity. Connor Hall, who had won 10 consecutive races at Langley, cut a tire on Lap 37 and parked his car. Brenden Queen was taken out from second when young Ayden Millette broke traction from the lead underneath him on Lap 112.
Brenden Queen and Ayden Millette do not see eye-to-eye on the Lap 121 crash
Queen and Hall specifically are the most winningest drivers from this track over the past decade and the fortune was not lost on either Travis nor Caden.
“A few things probably opened the door for us with (Queen), (Hall) and (Matt Waltz),” Travis said. “There was some good cars that had trouble. I don’t know if we beat them guys heads up or not. I know we had a great car, right? But I don’t know if we beat him or can you pass him? It’s hard to say.
“But regardless of all that, he drove a great race. He told me at the break what he needed, what he was fighting, and we kind of put our heads together. And in my mind, we just made perfect adjustments and the car was so good at the back half of the race and he just took care of it.
“And I was just waiting, watching the laps click off, waiting like, ‘when’s that yellow coming? When’s that yellow coming?’ I knew we had the best car at that point, but you just never know in a late race restart how it’s going to unfold.”
Caden echoed that sentiment.
“I feel like a couple things went our way for sure,” Caden said. “Those guys falling out, having issues or whatnot, that went out way. But at the same time, I put myself in positions where I stayed out of trouble and didn’t make any dumb mistakes that would take us out of the race — things I feel like I used to do in previous years.
“I really feel like that’s where I’ve grown the most as a driver, not making moves that I didn’t need to be making.”
Caden Kvapil and Travis Kvapil on one of the coolest nights of their career as Carson Kvapil wins NOAPS Indianapolis and Caden wins the Hampton Heat with his dad crew chief of the JR Motorsports 88 pic.twitter.com/ISEWBJYicM
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.
